1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a polarization element (polarization plate) and a liquid crystal display using the polarization element (polarization plate).
2. Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display has been finding use in an expanded variety of applications because of its merits such as high display quality, a small thickness, and low power consumption.
With the advent of a recent expansion of the applications of the liquid crystal display ranging from monitors for portable devices such as a monitor for a portable phone and a monitor for a digital still camera to monitors for desktop personal computers, monitors for printing and designing, medical monitors, and furthermore, liquid crystal television sets, there have been growing requests for good color reproducibility and a high contrast ratio.
In particular, extremely high emphasis has been placed on the representation of a black color in a liquid crystal television set, and high luminance has been strongly requested of the liquid crystal television set.
The acquisition of a liquid crystal display having a high contrast ratio and high image quality requires the application of a polarization plate having a high degree of polarization and high in-plane uniformity.
A pair of, for example, iodine polarizers each obtained by impregnating polyvinyl alcohol with an iodine complex or dye polarizers each obtained by impregnating stretched polyvinyl alcohol with a dichroism dye has been currently available as a pair of polarization plates to be used in the liquid crystal display.
Further, in addition to those conventional polarization plates, inventions each relating to the acquisition of a polarization element (polarization plate) by the alignment of the molecules of a dichroism pigment have been disclosed (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication No. 2001-330726 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication No. HEI 9-197125).